ABSTRACT
Analysts increasingly acknowledge the need for couple therapy, even when one or both partners are undergoing individual psychoanalysis. Analysts who are knowledgeable about relational dynamics see that parts of the analysand's personality are entangled in a couple link and remain unavailable to analysis, kept outside the transference relationship by resistance of both the patient and partner, blocking adequate interpretation and leading to possible impasse. In this chapter, the author illustrates some specific aspects of work with couples: moments when explicit unconscious elements that need containment appear simultaneously in both partners, such as helplessness and distress. Casual circumstances can affect both people unconsciously, with neither partner able to recognise what is transpiring with the other. Immediately refusal and deeply rooted defences arise to keep pervious traumatic events out of consciousness. Additionally, the conflict activated within the couple conceals inner unconscious reality that they share deeply.
